The Exchange Zone of the Baldwin Park Police Department station is where the parents of five-year-old Aramazd "Piqui" Andressian, Jr. conducted custody exchanges pictured July 21, 2017. In his fight for sole custody of his 5-year-old son, Andressian, Sr., accused of killing the child, went so far as to make false allegations of sexual abuse against the mother Ana Estevez. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb, SGV Tribune/ SCNG)

Aerial of Cachuma Lake water level taken December 3, 2004. RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS

A social worker and local police contacted a troubled San Gabriel Valley couple months before their 5-year-old son’s disappearance alarmed Southlanders far and wide, according to court documents reviewed by this publication.

Legal filings in the divorce proceedings of Aramazd Andressian Sr. and Ana Estevez depict a contentious separation, including accusations that at times prompted scrutiny from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and local police.

Both parents wanted sole custody of 5-year-old Aramazd “Piqui” Andressian Jr. At one point, Estevez sought a restraining order against her estranged husband, but it was denied.

Andressian Sr. “is a compulsive liar and is spiteful and vindictive,” Estevez said in one declaration to the court. She was “concerned that petitioner will attempt to utilize Aramazd (Andressian Jr.) as a weapon in this matter to hurt” her.

By April, the two parties had agreed to permanent joint custody with a slight change in the rotation. Instead of switching households every two days, Andressian Jr. would alternate weeks with each parent.

Estevez, 45, also declined to be interviewed for this story. Her divorce attorney, Nigel Burns, submitted a statement: “This mother has suffered enough and reporting this story only causes her further unnecessary pain.”

But statements Estevez has made publicly reveal she doesn’t only blame her husband.

Contentious from the start

Estevez and Andressian Sr. married Aug. 25, 2007. Their only child was born five years later. The family of three lived in a house on Loch Avon Drive in unincorporated West Whittier until the Andressians separated in April 2016.

Estevez told Andressian Sr. on April 3, 2016 she wanted a divorce. Five days later , he filed a petition to end their marriage, citing irreconcilable differences, and served her with divorce papers the next week at her work.

Like most pending divorces, a temporary order gave each joint custody of Andressian Jr. The boy would spend two days with one parent, then two days with the other, and they would alternate having him on weekends.

Both sides later sought to have sole physical custody. Each predicted the other parent would flee with the child to another country, he to Iran or Armenia, her to Cuba.

Court documents show they accused each other of harassment and maligning each other to Andressian Jr. The court ordered them to communicate via Talking Parents, an online messaging service that tracks conversations between parents in high-conflict situations, and ordered both to attend parenting class.

‘Unusual and disturbing events’

By November 2016, Estevez had filed for a domestic violence restraining order based on a “series of unusual and disturbing events,” three specifically: lies Andressian Sr. told about being employed, a possible threat he made targeting Estevez’s mother and a bizarre — and unfounded — accusation he lobbed against her, the one that attracted the attention of DCFS.

Throughout the legal documents, Estevez alleges Andressian Sr. lied to her and to the court. He described himself as a stay-at-home dad who was the primary caregiver and Andressian Jr.’s ride to and from school. Estevez argued she was the primary caregiver and her mother ferried Andressian Jr. to school and doctors’ appointments, at least up until the divorce was filed.

But the one falsehood included in her plea for a restraining order was the one about her estranged husband’s employment. Estevez believed Andressian Sr. worked as a dean for ITT Technical Institute in San Bernardino. She found out during the divorce that ITT let him go in 2012. “Most worrisome” was a Nov. 1 incident, when Estevez went out to dinner with her mother and son. Estevez said Andressian Jr. told his grandmother he had heard his father talking about her on the phone, saying his grandmother “needed to go be with the angels because she didn’t belong here anymore.”

The boy then volunteered that his father “tries to hurt mommy so she can go to the hospital, so he can have me.”

DCSF investigates

Then there was the investigation Andressian Sr. put into motion against her Sept. 29 when he alleged to the South Pasadena Police Department that their son was being molested by a 13-year-old boy named “Omar,” the son of Estevez’s boyfriend “TJ.” Detective Mike Palmieri confirmed the report in a phone interview.

The accusation won Andressian Sr. a temporary protective order against Estevez while Baldwin Park police and a social worker investigated.

Except there was no Omar and there was no TJ.

“Ana told me she thought Andressian made up the allegations about her and TJ because he wanted to gain complete custody of Junior. Ana said she could lose her job as a school principal if the allegations are substantiated, and she believed Andressian wanted this to happen to her,” Baldwin Park police Detective Carmen Chice wrote in an October 2016 report on the allegations.

Police visited Estevez at the Baldwin Park home she shared with her parents and son multiple times to investigate the allegations. Although Andressian Jr. initially informed a child psychologist and a DCFS social worker that “Omar” molested him, he later told the social worker he had lied, and his father had told him to tell the story about “Omar” and “TJ,” according to the court documents.

“What will happen if your daddy finds out that you told me the truth?” the social worker asked, according to the Baldwin Park report. Andressian Jr. said, “He’s going to tell the story again and again and again.”

The boy was 4 years old at the time.

The judge denied Estevez’s request for a domestic violence restraining order, saying she did not prove past acts of abuse.

‘My request was denied and now my son is missing’

On April 13, the couple agreed to share custody of Andressian Jr. Under the new agreement, submitted to the court as a final custody and visitation order, Andressian Sr. was to have physical custody the first week.

They were supposed to meet Estevez at the boy’s speech therapist’s office in San Marino on April 22 for a custody exchange, but the two never showed.

About 3 1/2 weeks later, Estevez asked the court to change the final custody order and award her sole custody. In a May 18 declaration to the court, she referred to her November attempt to get sole custody and a restraining order:

“My request was denied and now my son is missing.”

On May 19, she was granted sole custody, but Andressian Sr.’s lawyers never signed off on the findings. It never became official.

Numerous sources declined to comment. It was unclear if DCFS is still investigating the allegations. A department spokesman said he could not discuss investigations.

Baldwin Park police’s Chice concluded the allegations regarding “Omar” and “TJ” were unfounded and recommended in her report that the case be closed.

Lt. Joe Mendoza of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said he cannot comment on the criminal case since it is now in the courts. He referred this publication to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Craig Hum, assistant head deputy of the Major Crimes Division, is prosecuting the case. He declined comment on the case.

Palmieri, the South Pasadena detective who issued the emergency protective order against Estevez, said he could not discuss what is in the police report because a minor is involved.

Andressian Sr. is scheduled to return to Alhambra Superior Court on Tuesday to set a date for a preliminary hearing. He remains in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles in lieu of $10 million bail.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.

Stephanie K. Baer is a general assignment reporter covering the San Gabriel Valley. Baer has written about crime, local government, politics and public health. Her reporting on flaws in Los Angeles County's restaurant grading system prompted officials to change the way they issue health grades to retail food facilities. As part of a fellowship program at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism's Center for Health Journalism, she wrote an in-depth series about the dangers of blue-green algae toxins in California. A Bay Area native and UC Berkeley graduate, Baer has worked for the Chicago Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was editor-in-chief and president of her college newspaper, The Daily Californian.

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